by Jennie Jones
Beneath the shock that her career might be over, there rumbled an extraordinary sensation that it was meant to happen. That she wasn’t going to be an actor again.
Why this premonition? Did she have real doubts about continuing with her career? Was she bored with acting? Or was she just being a worrywart, like Tony had said?
Panic hit her. It was all very well to be a bit blasé about the biz, given her years under its rule, but if she didn’t have a job as an actor, she’d have no goal. If she didn’t have a goal there’d be nothing to work for.
‘Something wrong?’ Viv asked.
If she gave up the biz where would she live? What would she do? She’d be so sad she’d age faster and decide to go back to the theatre. But nobody would employ her, even as an understudy for the glamorous leading lady—which would have been Edie’s role before the rumours and the rapid aging process took over.
‘Edie! Did you hear me?’
Edie frowned. ‘Am I starting to look old?’
‘Ancient.’
‘I’m thinking of getting a cat.’
‘So you are staying.’
She might have to. She twisted the leather bracelet on her wrist. ‘I think I’m driving myself insane, Viv.’
‘So what’s new about that?’
Edie spluttered a reluctant laugh. ‘Not much, I suppose.’
Viv nodded at the bracelet, her eyebrows raised in enquiry.
‘Gemma gave it to me,’ Edie said, releasing it from the grip she’d taken. ‘It’s for emotional balance.’
‘It’s not working.’
‘Gem said I have many emotional issues—and Ryan doesn’t have any.’ Which wasn’t fair.
‘He’s wearing a bracelet too,’ Viv said.
‘I think Gem only gave it to him so I wouldn’t feel isolated, being the only person in town who needs healing.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. I think Ryan has a few issues too, actually.’ Viv relaxed back in the armchair and crossed her good leg over her space-boot.
‘Viv!’ Edie stood, her coffee spilling over the rim of the mug still in her hand. ‘You moved.’
‘I’m getting better muscle use every day. Watch this.’ She braced herself with her hands on the arms of the chair and stood. Then she took three steps forward, and three back to the chair. ‘Ta-dah!’ she said as she sunk to the seat again. ‘It’s not much yet, but I can handle it better than I could before. I’ve been practising with crutches. The doc gave me the okay to start weight-bearing exercises. Pretty sore though, and my ankles keep giving out. But the next three or four weeks will see me sorted.’ She smiled, looking so much like their mum. ‘Then watch me! No more help in the shower. No more asking strong men to carry me unless I want them to. Once I get into physiotherapy, the world won’t know what’s hit it. I’ll be back, Edie.’
All the emotional issues inside Edie swirled like a brewing tornado. Love for her family. For her brother, Lachlan, even though she kind of despised him for not liking his Granger people.
Her face puckered as she held onto the tears that threatened. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, they poured down her face. ‘Sorry,’ she said, but it came out gulped on a sob.
‘Hey, Edie! Come here.’ Viv held her arms out and leaned forwards in the chair. ‘Come here this minute!’
‘I’m fine.’
‘No, you’re not.’
Edie couldn’t move. The coffee mug trembled in her hand.
Viv pushed to stand.
‘Don’t!’ Edie said. ‘I’ll be fine in a second.’
‘At which point you’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on. Is it Ryan?’ Viv added gently as she sat back down.
Edie’s throat was clogged with all that stored-up emotion so she just shook her head. Tears were running down her cheeks. Actual true emotional tears, not the fake ones she produced whenever necessary for theatrical reasons.
‘Edie,’ Viv said. ‘Come here. Please.’
‘Left my hammer on the table,’ Ryan said as he pushed through the kitchen door. ‘Edie? What the hell’s wrong?’
‘She’s having a breakdown,’ Viv said, and this time she did stand, but she only took two hobbling steps before she gave a cry of pain.
Ryan rushed to help her. ‘You need to sit, Viv.’
‘I want to hug my sister—ouch!’
‘Sit down, and you can hug Edie in a minute.’
‘You hug her. She needs a big hug right now.’
‘I will. You just stay there and I’ll bring Edie to you.’
Ryan strode across the kitchen, took the mug from Edie’s hands, put it onto the table then pulled her into him. She was buried against him, his arms firmly around her.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
Edie enjoyed the sensation of breathing him in, not to mention the comfort of the strength in his body, but her head was tangled in too many emotional knots to work out anything she was experiencing on a sensory level.
‘Edie?’ Ryan murmured.
If someone asked her this very moment what it was she needed, she’d have said ‘my family’. Why didn’t she want to stay in Swallow’s Fall? Everything was here. She had her parents and Viv, and all the friends she was definitely going to get reacquainted with. But she’d left them. She’d swanned off and had hardly ever come home.
‘Take it easy on yourself, Edie,’ Ryan said, tightening his hug.
It didn’t feel like a hug, it felt like pure, solid comfort.
‘Why don’t you have any emotional issues?’ she asked him, blinking back the tears. She was soaking his shirt with them while her face was pressed against his chest, and it was such an amazing chest …
‘I’ve got one,’ he told her. ‘A really big one.’ He must have smiled, because his chest moved as though he’d almost pushed out a surprised laugh.
‘How big a problem is it?’ It would have to be humongous to topple all of Edie’s.
‘It’s a tall issue. One I can’t get over.’
She lifted her face to look up at him. She didn’t have her shoes on so she had to look up more than usual. ‘Does it hurt?’
He paused. ‘It does. Messes with my mind.’
She pushed from his hold, getting herself together faster than she’d thought possible—but this was Ryan. ‘Can I do anything to help?’
He coloured up, but the flush left his features as soon as he narrowed his eyes and stuck his hands into his jeans pockets. ‘I don’t think so.’ He gave her a deeper look. ‘I’m not sure, to be honest.’
She couldn’t decide what he was trying to say.
‘We all have so many secret problems, don’t we?’ she said.
‘You appear to have the most,’ Viv said. ‘Now come here and hug me, instantly!’
Edie managed a laugh and rushed over to Viv. She bent, put her arms around her sister and hugged her hard. ‘I love you, Viv.’
‘I love you too and I hate seeing you so worried and upset.’
‘You know me,’ Edie said, hugging harder.
‘Yes, I do. That’s why I’m worried.’
Viv would be even more concerned once all Edie’s secrets were out in the open.
If Marcus sued her and won, she’d lose everything. The house she’d just been given. Her career. Her lifestyle. She could already envisage the article in the local newspaper. Edie Granger, one of Australia’s leading theatre actors, is well and truly in the spotlight today after being sued for libel, defamation and a tonne of other legal matters by Hollywood king, Marcus Buchanan. Miss Granger is not available for comment but her lawyer said she’s basically stuffed.
She’d have to get a job at Kookaburra’s and the Chinese takeaway—and maybe the ice-cream van. She’d be working for Ted!
She pushed away her silly thoughts. ‘Don’t worry, Viv. I’m just having a moment.’ A totally paranoid, emotionally fraught moment when she should be concentrating on poor Ryan and his issue. She looked back at Ryan. ‘This is normal,’ she told him. ‘I’m alway
s having moments.’
‘It’s not normal,’ Viv said.
Ryan’s features tightened with concern, but Edie didn’t have time to lessen his worry with a flippant comment because a car’s engine sounded, a horn toot-tooted, and then tyres rolled on the gravel driveway outside, crunching to a halt.
‘Oh, no. That’ll be Mum,’ Viv said. ‘Dad said he’d ask her to pick me up. We can’t let her see you like this.’
Edie blinked hard, then wiped her eyes with her fingertips. Her mother would know instantly that there was something very wrong.
‘Ryan,’ Viv said. ‘Pick me up and carry me outside so Mum doesn’t see her. Edie, I’ll tell Mum you’re in the shower—and I want you to talk to Ryan. Ryan—make Edie talk to you.’
‘I will, Viv, it’s okay.’
‘Edie,’ Viv said as Ryan lifted her in his arms. ‘Please talk to Ryan. I’ll call you as soon as I get home.’
‘I will,’ Edie promised, wiping her eyes. But he had a big worry of his own, and she didn’t want to burden him with all of hers. So what could she say?
12
For Love of the Leading Lady
Ryan stepped into the kitchen after helping Viv into Sammy’s car and waving them off. He closed the back door quietly and turned to Edie, who was half-hidden by the doorframe leading to the hall.
‘Did Mum say anything?’ she asked.
Ryan shook his head. He’d spent the last few minutes being genial with Viv and Sammy so that Edie’s mother wouldn’t guess there was anything wrong. But all that time, throughout the smiles and the cheery conversation, his heart had hardened.
‘Edie. What’s going on?’
She waited before answering, looking as though she was sussing out whether or not she should speak up. ‘I’m in debt. Kind of. But not yet.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to worry you.’
‘Your problems are my problems.’
She looked up, surprise on her face.
‘I’m living in your house. I’m building your stage. I’ve taken the job of stage manager. Of course whatever affects you affects me.’
She walked into the kitchen. ‘You’ve got big worries of your own. I don’t want to lumber you with mine.’
‘Go ahead. Lumber me.’
She gave him a smile and he tightened that ball of worry in his chest.
‘Do you have man problems?’ he asked, taking a firm hold of his emotions. He’d have to hear about the affair whether he wanted to know the details or not.
She pushed out a laugh. ‘Like no other,’ she said disdainfully.
‘The producer you killed off in the play?’ he prompted, making his voice even, almost toneless.
She nodded then got embarrassed and fidgety, pulling at her navy-blue T-shirt.
‘So he’s an ex-boyfriend? Or a current one?’ Ryan asked.
‘Ex-date.’
‘And?’
She blew out her breath. ‘There was a bit of a casting-couch moment and I slapped him.’
Ryan ignored the vision in his head. He’d find out exactly what kind of casting-couch issue it had been later. First, he wanted her to tell him about the relationship. ‘But you’d already been out on a date with him?’
‘He’s married.’ She flushed a deep shade of pink, her awkwardness at admitting this clear.
‘Pretty dumb, Edie.’ He couldn’t halt the reprimand any more than he could halt the sudden soreness in his chest as all his hurts unravelled from the knot he’d tied them in.
She looked at him beseechingly. ‘What can I say?’ She spread her hands. ‘I didn’t—’
‘All this worry about everyone around you,’ he said, cutting her off. He didn’t want to hear the excuses. ‘About Viv, and about wanting people to like you—is it a cover-up for your own problems?’
‘I’m confused,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to stay here, and then I do. Now I might have to. Which is infuriating because I haven’t been given a chance to make up my own mind. It should be my decision. Tony said Marcus is going to sue me. Marcus Buchanan,’ she added. ‘He’s a Hollywood mogul.’
‘Why is he going to sue you?’
‘He already knew I’d written him into the play as a dead body, now he’s even more furious because of the gossip about him. I told two actor friends about … about us, and they must have told others and now it’s got back to Marcus. I’m sorry, Ryan.’
‘Isn’t it his wife you should be apologising to?’
‘It wasn’t …’ She swallowed, blushing again. Her eyes brimmed with tears. ‘You don’t understand. He’s not satisfied with taking every penny off me. He wants to ruin my career too—he already has. Look at me. I’m stuck here, hiding from him because he’s a really big bigwig in the producing world. He’s from Hollywood, for crying out loud. He’s worth millions! Even my agent isn’t talking to me.’
‘Edie, calm down.’ He ought to put the brakes on—she was trembling. It wasn’t as if he had any right to tell her what she’d done was wrong.
‘He’ll ruin me and then everyone will hate me. My family will never forgive me.’
More tears welled in her eyes and Ryan’s heart got busted. Just like that. ‘I apologise, Edie. I had no right to say that about his wife.’
‘I don’t blame you,’ she said, attempting to get herself under control.
He wanted so much to pull her into him and hold her tight. To run his hand over her head and cradle her against his shoulder. ‘We’ll sort it out,’ he told her. ‘We’ll get you a lawyer. I’ll make some enquiries.’
‘Tony’s doing that. Tony is helping me.’
‘I’ll help you too.’
‘You don’t have to.’ She sounded defensive, but was that a tiny hint of acceptance he’d heard in her tone?
‘I want to.’
‘Really?’ She blinked at him. ‘It helps that you know, actually.’
He knew more than she thought. The only missing scenes in the play that was Edie Granger’s life was how the casting-couch moment came to be, and whether it had been a willing start, both Buchanan and Edie wanting it before Edie had to slap him.
‘Did he hurt you?’ he asked.
‘He just scared me.’ She took hold of the leather bracelet on her wrist and twisted it. ‘Don’t tell my parents.’
‘I won’t. Unless it’s necessary.’
‘No. They’ll be worried.’
‘Ethan already is.’
She gasped. ‘He doesn’t know, does he?’
Ryan shook his head. ‘He mentioned something about you being unhappy, or worried.’
‘I’ll sort it all out,’ she said, her voice taking on determination. ‘If I’m sued and I lose everything, then so be it.’ She straightened, and courage entered her eyes.
‘How about you let me dig around a bit?’ Ryan suggested. ‘That way, we can sort out whatever might be necessary with Buchanan.’ Like shooting the bastard. ‘Without you having to deal with it all on your own.’
‘I can deal with it on my own.’
No, she couldn’t. It was too stressful for one thing, and given that he was still looking around for a man named Hanger …
‘Edie,’ he said softly.
His heart moved when she looked up at him. Lost, but proud. Courageous but still frightened.
‘I’m sorry I was harsh on you. I’m worried about you, that’s all. And I’ve got a few things on my mind too.’
‘Your tall issue?’
He nodded. ‘I’ll get over that one day.’ He threw her a smile, and was relieved when her mouth curved and her eyes lost most of the scared look. ‘Let’s be friends.’
‘We’re not very good at it,’ she pointed out.
‘Can we try again?’
She hesitated but he saw the many thoughts flashing through her mind because they were displayed on her face. A frown. A pull of her lower lip. Then she cleared her features. ‘I would like to be friends,’ she said, stepping towards the kitchen bench.
He
pulled out a stool for her, then moved to the opposite side and sat. ‘What shall we have for dinner?’ he asked, thinking it wise to leave the previous conversation alone for the moment. ‘How about I make my special?’
‘Your beef marsala? Would you? I’ll make my famous French fries. I have a packet in the freezer.’
‘Deal.’
He’d do the right thing. He’d stand by her, and even attempt to enjoy being with her—as a friend. He’d watch out for her and watch over her. He’d put his own need for her to one side because she needed him. And if all went awry and she was sued by Buchanan, then she’d have her family to fall back on.
He’d be out of the picture by that point.
‘This is nice,’ Edie said, smiling at him. She’d like to be a whole lot more than his friend, of course, but if that was all he could offer her, that’s what she’d take.
It was comforting to sit quietly with him, and later, they’d cook dinner together. But first they had to get over this awkward part.
‘I much prefer being friends with you than arguing,’ she told him, sincere about that. Even if she could never have him as the leading man in her life, he’d always be such a special person to her.
‘Me too.’ His smile was warm and Edie felt less worried than before, when he was interrogating her.
Shame swamped her about Marcus. ‘Ryan, I just want to say one thing. It’s about Marcus Buchanan. I have to say it. Even though I don’t want to spoil this—’
‘Say it.’ His voice was soft and he wasn’t rushing her now.
‘I didn’t know he was married.’
‘Christ—I’m sorry, Edie. I assumed—’
‘I know. I get it. What shall we talk about next? Tell me a joke or something.’
‘Edie, I need to know what happened in that casting-couch incident.’
She lightly intertwined her fingers, so she looked at ease and ready to spill the beans about an embarrassing situation to a man she didn’t want to be embarrassed with. ‘I had two dates with him. One for dinner and another where he took me along to a movie opening.’ She paused then decided to just say the next bit quickly. ‘I was taken with his status, not him. Pathetic though that sounds. Anyway, I’d gone to his hotel room with him because he said he’d left his phone there.’ She sighed. ‘I had my doubts about the truth of that, but being stupid, I went.’